Kasei was right behind Raven when he entered the room, and his reaction was like Pyralins: he tensed, drew his blade, and prepared for an assault [dodge check, right?]. The rebel flame looked around the room for any signs of a trap, his eyes constantly flying over Wraith, examining the assasin for any hint of an attack. Then the exit burst into flame, and Kasei jumped in shock. The rebel flame turned around to face the inferno, and gulped. He had not felt the fire form, or even heard Wraith cast a spell, so he knew instantly that he was facing an expert. He turned around, and another thing came to mind; what was Wraith planning to do now, kill them? This would prove difficult indeed.

OOC: Alpha, about the thing we discussed about, I changed my mind, and I shall ask you for permission to do the said change as I do not believe it would be fair for everyone else. Just PM me if you forgot what we talked about.

OOC: Dang, this is a long one. Sorry guys.

IC:
"Like I told you before, Raven," Wraith says after a few moments of silent chuckling, "I do as the man in charge of me says. It's what the 'for hire' clause in the whole 'Assassin for Hire' job description dictates, and while it can't be a bit bothersome at times, my employer has never given me reason to doubt him."

All at once, the pots and barrels and other containers all around the chamber explode like cauldrons of fire, unleashing a maelstrom upon the unsuspecting - and even the suspecting - adventurers. "PERHAPS YOU'D LIKE TO SEE WHAT HE HAS HAD IN STORE FOR YOU ALL ALONG!!!" Wraith bellows loudly, his voice rising even up above the erupting storm as he raises an arm. With a roar, he throws it forward, and at this command the element of destruction stampedes forward, enveloping all those present entirely.


Enveloping . . . but not slaughtering.


Alpha slowly allows one eye to peek open, only to find himself drawing back in awe. Right before his eyes and his form sits an infernal vortex, tongues of flame weaving their way around the small patch of unsinged land on which the adventurers stand. In fact, not only has the fire been held at bay for some unexplained reason, but the very heat itself does not penetrate the invisible dome that has formed around them. His

"You haven't even reached for it, I see."

The Sheikah whirls around, staff already in hand and held in a defensive posture - primarily because an offensive pose would have the wood being held behind him where it would be burned to a crisp - only to find his eyes showing him nothing but those who have been annoyingly following him all along. 'Telepathy?' he thinks.

"Well, of course, Wraith," the voice in his head replies. A short laugh. "It would not do for your . . . companions . . . to hear me addressing you as such, at any rate."

'Who are you? Are you the one doing this, and if so why?'

Another laugh. "So many questions, and so little time to answer them all. I am merely a servant of good, employing a servant of the not-so-good to find a way to accomplish the greater good."

'. . . Come again?'

"I am the one who employed your impostor, provided him with the necessary tools to reveal you, and set him on this course. I have no desire to see you hurt . . . just a desire to see you bearing the full force of the power you are entitled to. Specifically, I want you to utilize the power of -"

'- of Korev.'

A moment of silence, as if the man on the other end of the telepathic line can sense his defiance, which is actually quite possible. Then . . . "Yes."

'Never again.'

He can almost picture the man's jaw clenching, as if he was attempting to teach a child a lesson that the student refused to learn. "In time, perhaps, you will change your mind. Believe me, Wraith, yours is a destiny that you cannot walk away from."

The Sheikah's eyes shut, his crimson gaze staring at the back of his eyelids for many long moments. 'I make my own destiny,' he finally replies. 'And that horrifying power has no place in it.'

* * *

The wizard slumps his shoulders, sighing to himself as he breaks off his mental contact with Alpha. "To believe that a person can forge their own destiny is foolish, young Wraith," he finally says into the air, even though the intended recipient can no longer hear it. "A single person's destiny is influence by everyone in existence, past, present or future, and yours . . . yours has many active parties in it.

"Do be ready, Wraith . . . for soon the time will come when I will not be able to help you. Then you will require the power of Korev . . ." He bows his head mournfully.

". . . and when that occurs, may Aalya be merciful to you."

* * *

"Alik!"

Wraith turns away from the satisfyingly bright fireball, gazing smugly at the astral projection of his employer. "Yeah, what's up boss?"

The spectral form shakes his head sadly, muttering a few short orders. "Alik, this mission is a failure. You are to return to the base at once."

"A WHAT?!" The Assassin cries out, enraged. "Look there, you old coot! You see that big ball of fire?! WRAITH JUST GOT INCINERATED BY IT!!! HOW THE HECK DOES THAT CONSTITUTE A -"

He stops cold.

No way. Not on earth would this idiot -

"YOU . . ." he says coldly, looking back to where the flames have gathered. "YOU WOULDN'T DARE . . ."

In answer, the spirit simply waves his hands, and the flame parts, revealing the adventurers within it, all unharmed and still ready for a fight. The Staff Brenyuu falls to the ground, clattering on the stone floor even as its magic rods retract back into the small handle. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?!"

Without warning the Assassin turns on his heals, barreling towards the image of the wizard who has suddenly just betrayed him. "Other than the fact that you have no idea what my plans are?" the spirit bellows. "Other than the fact that you're too STUPID to comprehend what I require of you and Yuenbri?! Other than the fact that, if he was to show an INKLING of intelligence, you and your power could not even come CLOSE TO HIS!?!"

The flames suddenly lurch forward like a snake, completely ensnaring both the spirit and the Assassin in their white hot glow. Alik's screams of pure and unhindered rage are the only things that reach their ears above the fiery roar.

* * *

Alpha blinks in surprise as the voice that had been speaking with him before reaches his ears - and is even more shocked to see it coming from a spirit. He watches the entire proceeding in silence, letting the being in charge chastise the Assassin, then complete the punishment by enveloping him in his own elemental force. Then he gasps, realizing the full import of the spirit's last deed here.

The flames barrel upward like a geyser, their intensity not quelling as they move through the air. And then they hit the ceiling, smashing into it with a force that can hardly be conceived. The entire castle shakes as if an earthquake were striking it, and then the ceiling gives way, disintegrating in a perfectly circular manner before finally allowing the flames to continue their upward spiral into the chamber above. Debris crashes to the ground, and it isn't long before Alpha spots a few piles that seem almost too perfectly arranged, so as to allow them to reach that room above them. And then his eyes narrow . . . he's spotted something else . . .

The spirit abruptly reappears before them, saying only one sentence. "A gift to atone for Alik's mistakes: express passage to the throne room." And then it is gone for good.

* * *

Unseen by anyone and everyone, Brenyuu's cylindrical form falls into the Void's portal of shadows.



OOC: If you don't know what to do now, well . . . let's just say that I expect one final post from everyone in this topic, and then one post from everyone in CL.

OOC: Wait, Wraith's dead???? Oh, darn!!!

IC: Kasei looks ahead at the spectacle, his eyes trying to make sense of what they see. He looks around, at the other adventurers, to see what they might do, but they seem to be busy in something else. Then it was over, and Kasei felt like his breath was stolen. "What just transpired?" He asked, waiting for someone, anyone, to answer.

OOC: Double-purpose! I have made a single video on youtube, a tribute to HA2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ2tgWXG_c

I hope you all like it.

Alpha stands at the forefront of the group as the events transpire, silently watching as the impostor Wraith is enveloped in flames that shoot directly through the ceiling. He keeps his back facing his companions, for two reasons really: the first being that he really is somewhat surprised by whatever it was that just happened, and is frozen in place . . . to a degree. The second . . . well, lest someone ask him about it, he'd rather wait for the violet light emerging from his scar to disappear before facing anyone. It soon does so, reverting to the azure state it has held ever since their first encounter with the Hakiems upon entering the castle.

But even as the light fades he remains motionless, two thoughts ringing through his head. Each stemming from the last sentence that that astral form of that wizard who had spoken to them: "A gift to atone for Alik's mistakes: express passage to the throne room."

'The throne room . . .' It makes him feel foolish to admit it even to himself, but he had very nearly forgotten the group's reason for being here in the castle in the first place. The castle had fallen under attack by the Hakiems, the Royal Family taken hostage and they going to save them. How could he have allowed himself to loose sight of his goal, simply because of the appearance of that impostor Wraith . . . that Alik?!

And that in and of itself is the second thought, and the one that he focuses more upon. 'Alik . . .' he thinks with a hard face, remembering the angered look, one of pure outrage and hatred that the fire-wielder had sported in the final moments of consciousness at the Demon Tournament.


"You're done," the masked assassin said after a moment, the staff he sported pointed directly at his opponent's neck.

In a heap on the floor, Alik glared up at the visage of Wraith. Who was he, a complete newcomer to the field of death and destruction, to claim victory over a master assassin who had been the best of the business for a full twenty years!?! "Ne-never!" he found himself have to choke out as he kept his eyes focused on his opponent. He had to keep looking at the cape and hood and mask of Wraith . . . lest his eyes go to the source of his pain - namely, the charred remains of the flesh of his right leg, the outpouring of blood leaving through the hole piercing directly through his stomach, and the wobbling forms of a pair of broken arms.

"Never?" Wraith repeated without emotion. The wooden staff slowly lowered until its point hit the ground as its owner took another step forward, until the kid - a kid! A sixteen year old kid, for crying out loud! - stood directly over Alik's form.

And then it came, a laugh that Alik knew he could never forget, even after death. A slow chuckle that resounded throughout the chamber where the battle had taken place, ever growing in volume until it overshadowed all noises that the onlookers could make . . . not that they were making any noise at this point in the fight, of course. "You'll never give up then?" Wraith said after abruptly stopping with the laughs.

"You are a fool. A warrior who doesn't know when he can't win is an idiot of the worst kind, and doesn't deserve to live."

And then Wraith turned away, walking smoothly, as though he had sustained no injuries in the thirty minutes of fighting that the pair had done. "And it's because you don't deserve life that I won't kill you yet . . . I want you wallowing in your disgrace until you have the strength to end yourself."

Alik's eyes became enraged, and the spasms of muscles in his right arm brought it crashing down to the floor. A trail of burning fire erupted forth from where the Hylian lay helpless on the ground, shooting directly at the Sheikah. The fool had let his guard down, had turned his back to his opponent before the battle was done, had -

Wraith never even turned around as his temper with this weakling snapped. Like a gelatinous blob, the shadows beneath where Alik lay somehow surged upwards, tendrils of darkness emerging from the ground as they wrapped themselves around the fallen assassin's form. In an instant the Hylian's attention shattered and the flaming barrage he'd initiated fell apart just as quickly. He was suddenly being lifted upwards, the shadows beneath him rising off the ground several feet as darkness tethered him to whatever it was he found himself lying upon.

And then the Shadow Platform dissipated beneath him, and the Darkness Tendrils gave a mighty heave. Moving at the speed of a rocket, Alik found himself slamming down into the arena floor, feeling it crack and then shatter beneath the force of the attack . . .

. . . and then feeling nothing.


As Wraith would learn in the week before he disappeared once more, Alik had miraculously survived . . . though his shattered spine had required months of healing sessions to recover from the final attack of the Demon Tournament.


So that was who had been going around masqueraded as the Sheikah's assassin form. It all makes perfect sense now that he has heard the man's name . . . why couldn't he have done so before, while they were chasing the Assassin through the passages of North Castle.

It hardly matters now, he thinks as he finally manages to shake himself away from these thoughts. He replays the last few moments in his mind in order to distract himself from those memories, and ends up replying to Kasei's utterance with a simple answer. "I . . . I'm not really sure . . ." But still, a new thought enters his head, a third offshoot of the wizard's words. He'd called this hole in the ceiling a "gift". That would mean that . . . that they still need to head up into the throne room, right?

Without another moment's hesitation, the Sheikah leaps upward, landing on a steady chunk of destroyed flooring about halfway up, and using another leap off of that to propel him the rest of the way, into the throne room where the final challenge waits.

OOC: Alpha has left CP, and entered CL. This will probably be my final post in this topic, so everyone hurry into CL! ^__^

Oh, and, uh . . . sorry about the long wait . . . *beats up school*

Kasei watched as Alpha leaped upwards. The rebel flame smiles. "He has a stout heart. I wish I knew more about him." He says, changing the mood about him. "All aboard who's going aboard, I guess." He finishes. The shiekah then jumps after alpha, into the hole, also landing on the destroyed flooring, then mirrors Alpha's leap into the throne room.